If You're Not From West Virginia, You Just Don't Get It

Welcome to "The Gods Are Bored."

Perhaps if the Huanca weren't so bored they might have saved a few lives last night. But why bother, if you're an unemployed Incan deity?

WEST VIRGINIA FOR VISITORS
By Anne

1. People live there because the mountains are beautiful.

2. People live there because they're related by blood or marriage to everyone in their township. And that's not something to make sick jokes about. It binds you to your community.

3. People work in coal mines because it's a short commute and pays a whole hell of a lot better than unloading cargo at the Wal-Mart dock.

4. Coal miners gave their lives to establish the unions that have protected workers in this country for the last 70 years. That protection is being systematically undermined. Soon we will all be trapped in pockets of carbon monoxide, and they'll call us dumb, pro-union hillbilly trash who can't do any better than work underground.

5. Did I say the mountains are beautiful? They are worth dying for.

FROM ANNE
THE MERLIN OF BERKELEY SPRINGS

Google it.